Pictured: Professor Niamh Nowlan and Dr Aidan Regan from UCD recently received a total of €4m in ERC funding for their two research projects.  

Ireland’s participation in Horizon Europe

As we kick off the fourth year of the Horizon Europe programme, there are 380 individual Irish organisations participating in Horizon Europe projects – almost one third of those are involved in more than one project bringing Ireland’s participation rate to 1325. 

Increasing participation in Horizon Europe is one of the aims of the National Support Network team which works with Irish companies and the research community to help them identify opportunities to compete for and win funding. 

Increased demand for Horizon Europe proposal preparation grants

Enterprise Ireland, which leads the National Support Network team, provides grants to researchers in academic institutions ranging from €3k - €16k to help them develop competitive proposals – these include a travel grant, a proposal Coordinator grant and an ERC (European Research Council) Proposal preparation grant.

Last year saw a big increase in demand for these supports with €3.62 million approved to support Horizon Europe applicants in 2023 – this was almost €1 million more than the total approved in 2022. 

We were particularly pleased to see an increase in applications for the travel grant as numbers had reduced significantly in previous years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Updates to grants

Over the last 15 months, a number of changes have been made to the grants to speed up and simplify the application and approval process and to allow greater flexibility for researchers, particularly in salaries for teaching replacement and research and administration assistants. 

A significant change came into effect this time last year which means that Coordinator and ERC Proposal grants now have a duration of 24 months (previously 9-12 months).  As the option to request a time extension does not apply in the case of 24-month grants, applicants and Research Offices need to give some consideration to the timing of applications, particularly in relation to ERC Proposal preparation grants. 

If a Horizon Europe proposal is not submitted within the 24-month timeframe, grant money must be refunded to Enterprise Ireland.  

All grant recipients should be aware that, despite the 24-month duration, eligible costs relate solely to the preparation of the application to the European Commission. Expenditure incurred after proposal submission and/or interview is not eligible for reimbursement.

Common errors in applications

While recent changes have greatly reduced the error rate in applications, we are still receiving applications with ineligible costs or requests that deviate from the guidelines. 

All applications to Enterprise Ireland are funnelled via Research Offices through the SmartSimple system and Research Officers must review applications prior to submission. Where there are errors or where costs are unclear or lacking in information, applications are returned for revisions, but not directly to the applicant - the system is set up so applications are returned first to the Research Office which is then responsible for returning the application to the applicant. 

Until the Research Office returns the application to the applicant, they are unable to edit and save changes or resubmit. We regularly receive emails from grant applicants trying to make changes to an application where the Research Office has not yet returned it to them.

Travel costs

The most common reason for returning an application is for errors relating to travel costs. Some key points to remember:

·       Trip duration is typically less than three overnights – if the trip duration is longer, a justification should be provided. 

·       Costs for the trip must be itemised with costs for flights, hotel and subsistence, airport transfers, etc broken down separately.

·      Please provide the names and roles of the people travelling and the number of days they intend to travel for.

·       Hotel and Subsistence rates are one cost – they must be calculated using public service subsistence rates. 

·       Domestic travel is ineligible. The only eligible costs are bus/rail transport to and from an airport. Taxis are not an eligible cost.

Project Alteration

As things don’t always go to plan, sometimes grant recipients have to make changes to their proposal preparation plans and adjust how they need to spend grant money. Project Alteration Forms outlining the changes can be submitted and this is recommended where there are significant changes or where there is uncertainty around the eligibility of costs – it is best practice to do this in advance of making the changes. 

Costs that are not eligible will be rejected, so if you are unsure, and to avoid disappointment at final claims stage, please email us at [email protected] and we will be happy to advise you.